


Protect You

by Unproductive_Fangirl



Series: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power One-Shots [2]
Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-30
Updated: 2018-11-30
Packaged: 2019-09-02 20:42:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,432
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16794385
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Unproductive_Fangirl/pseuds/Unproductive_Fangirl
Summary: It had just been a nice day out exploring in some caves with Bow. Now Adora was trapped in a caved in tunnel with Catra while Bow ran off to get Glimmer. However, he has to make it all the way to the castle, and back with Glimmer, which leaves quite a bit of time with nothing for Adora and Catra to do but talk. What starts out as some snide comments and teasing quickly dissolves into a much more serious conversation.





	Protect You

**Author's Note:**

> I know the cave-in is a little cheesy, and a lot of this was gone over in Promise, but I felt like the conversation kind of got interrupted there and it needed to be gone into with a bit more detail. So yeah, that's what I thought I would do.

“Are you going to spend the whole time scratching at the rocks?” Adora asked, looking over at Catra from where she was sitting, leaning back against one of the walls.

“At least I’m doing something to try and get us out of here.” Despite the fact that Catra wasn’t looking at her, Adora could tell she had rolled her eyes at that “What are you doing? Sitting around waiting to die?”

“I’ve accepted that scratching at rocks isn’t going to do anything,” Adora rolled her eyes herself at that “I told you, Bow is going to get Glimmer. When she gets here she’ll just teleport us out.”

This whole thing was a mess. She wasn’t sure what had really caused part of the cave to collapse. Bow and her had been on a walk while Glimmer was hauled up doing some commander stuff, and Adora had talked him into exploring the tunnels and caves. The last thing she had been expecting was to find Catra also exploring, apparently one of the tunnels popped out by a Horde base. There had been a moment where they all just looked at each other, before Catra acted, and on instinct Adora and Bow had as well. Somehow when she tried to transform the tunnel had started to cave in. Immediately she’d dropped the sword and jumped to push Catra out of the way, resulting with the two of the on one side of caved in tunnel with a dead end, and Bow and the sword on the other with th exit.

“Teleport you out,” Catra muttered in return, still walking back and forth along the fallen rocks “Excuse me if don’t trust your friend to get me out of this.” 

“Glimmer isn’t going to just leave you in here,” Adora replied, sighing a bit “But fine, whatever. If you want to dull your claws scratching away at stone, be my guest.” 

“I’m not just randomly scratching at it, I’m trying to find a spot to start moving them so we can get ourselves out,” Catra snapped in return.

“You’re just going to end up making more of the wall fall on us if you start doing that,” Adora shook her head as she thought about it “Look, just knock it off and I promise Glimmer will get us both out of here. And once we’re out you’ll be free to go back to the Horde or attack us again if you’d rather.” 

“Right, like that means anything,” Catra muttered.

“I keep my word, Catra.”

“Sure.”

Before Adora could reply to that, Catra had already turned back to start looking at the wall of rock in front of them again. She was about to reply anyway, but honestly it didn’t seem worth it. If she wanted to spend her time pulling at rocks so be it.

However, the sound of claws deflecting off rock started to grate on her nerves faster than she expected, and soon enough she found herself muttering “God, I can’t believe I ever thought your stubbornness was enduring.” 

“My stubbornness? Please, you are the most stubborn person I know,” Catra didn’t look at her, but Adora could picture the smirk on her face as her voice rose to a mocking version of Adora’s own “‘Oh no Catra, we can’t do that, if Shadow Weaver finds out we’ll be in so much trouble.’ I had to talk you into everything.”

“Excuse me if I was trying to stop you from getting in trouble,” Adora replied, annoyed more now at Catra’s teasing “I was trying to protect you instead of running off on every crazy idea you came up with.” 

“I don’t need you to protect me,” Catra replied, the response sounding automatic, and there was a pause where Adora thought that was just going to be the end of the conversation, before Catra turned to look at her again, “And how exactly did you think you were protecting me? By kissing up to Shadow Weaver and being her perfect little soldier.” 

“Yes,” Adora replied with slight exasperation. Couldn’t Catra see that that had been exactly what she was doing? “Believe me, I wish I could have stood up to her the way you did, but if I had it would have just made everything worse. I would have loved to tell her off, but I was terrified of what would happen if I did.” 

Catra actually scoffed at that, leaning back against the fallen rocks, arms crossed, and Adora knew she was doing her best to hide her emotions behind an annoyed facade. It was an expression Adora was very familiar with. “You were terrified? Of what? You never got in trouble for anything.” 

“But you did,” Adora replied, shaking her head “I was scared that if I did anything- if I spoke out against her it would just end up making it worse for you.” 

Catra’s eyes narrowed as she looked over at her “So instead you just stood there.”

“Yes, because if I had said or done anything Shadow Weaver would have thought it was somehow your fault. That your defiance was rubbing off on me, or that you were a bad influence, or I don’t know, something. You heard her Catra, if she thought you were ‘dragging me down’ she would have gotten rid of you- disposed of you-” Adora shook her head again, before taking a deep breath and forcing herself to look back at Catra “So yeah, I just stood there, and yes I tried to be her ‘perfect little soldier’, because that was the best way I knew to try and protect you.”

As she spoke, Catra’s eyes had returned to their normal size, and for a long moment she just looked at her. For a second Adora thought Catra was going to speak, but then she didn’t. Instead there was another pause, but Adora didn’t fill it. She just waited for Catra to finally speak, and when she did her voice quieter and less rough than usual “I didn’t need you to protect me.”

That wasn’t exactly the response Adora had been hoping for, but then again she wasn’t sure what she had been hoping for. Sighing, she just shrugged “No, you didn’t. You’re a lot braver than me, always have been, but that didn’t change the fact that I wanted to. That’s what friends do, they try to protect each other, even if it isn’t needed.”

“So was that what you were doing when you decided to run off with your princess friends?” Catra shot in return, but it didn’t have the usual power behind it. It was clear that what Adora had said had hit something, that she was fighting to keep up the tough act and sarcastic tone. Or at least, it was clear to Adora, maybe it wouldn’t have been to anyone else “What did you think Shadow Weaver would do when I failed to bring you back? Some protection-” 

“You can’t have it both ways Catra, you can’t get mad at me for trying to protect you and than also be mad at me for the one time I didn’t,” Adora replied, shaking her head at that, though she found she wasn’t really that annoyed. Catra was trying to put up a front, and the easiest way to do that was to bring up when Adora had left. “And I asked you to come with me. I didn’t just abandon you, I offered you a way out, I wanted you to come. It’s not my fault that you decide not to take it.”

“Whatever,” Catra muttered, finally moving to sit down, leaning back against the rocks and pulling one leg up, not really looking at Adora as she did so.

Adora hesitated, letting the silence settle, thinking over her next comment for a long moment before saying it “You still could you know. Come with me.”

“Please, like your princess pals would want me around.” She shook her head, still not really looking at Adora as she did so, a clear sign that she wa trying to hide something “They wouldn’t let me anywhere near their precious castle.” 

“They would, if I asked them,” Adora insisted, sitting up a bit more now as she looked over at Catra, silently hoping. “And I will, if you want me to.” 

“Why would I?” Catra cut in, her comment short.

“Why would you want to stay with the horde?” Adora replied evenly, shaking her head at that “They’ve never done anything for you, so why should you risk your safety fighting for them?”

“Because at least with the horde you know where you stand. You have to earn your position, you don’t just find a magic sword and let it solve all your problems,” Catra spat in return, and Adora could hear the annoyance coming back into her voice as she said it.

“It’s not like I’m just perfect now Catra, I still have to train. There’s a lot about the sword I don’t understand, I still have a lot to learn,” Adora said, shaking her head “Plus my reach and stride changes when I’m She-Ra so there’s that to adjust to as well."

“Poor you,” Catra rolled her eyes at that, voice sounding slightly disgusted, and Adora knew the moment they had was gone. Catra had turned back on her defenses, and it wasn’t likely they would go back down again any time soon. “God, I can’t believe I ever wanted to be like you.”

Adora couldn’t help the slight twitch of her mouth at that “Really? Because I always wanted to be more like you. Brave enough to stand up to Shadow Weaver, to do what you wanted without worrying about what others would think.”

“Meanwhile you were the star pupil. The example of what we all should be, how we were supposed to act,” Catra shook her head, before looking back at Adora with a slight sneer on her face “And now your some pampered princess who’s nothing without her magic sword.”

Before Adora could even think about what she was doing, she’d pushed herself up, moving into a fighting stance “Let’s go then.”

Catra raised an eyebrow at her, seemingly unimpressed “What are you doing?”

“I don’t see the sword of protection anywhere, do you?” Adora replied evenly, raising an eyebrow in return “You think I’m nothing without it, let’s see if you’re right. I bet I can still knock you on the ground.” 

The other girl seemed to consider for just a moment, before a smirk slipped onto her face and she pushed herself up, tail twitching. Then she pounced.

It was a little strange how easy and familiar it felt to fall into the rhythm of sparring with Catra. Really that’s what they were doing, neither of them was actually trying to seriously hurt the other, it was just an exercise to see who was more skilled, dancing around each other and fancier then if they were actually looking to injure. They were sparing, just like they had done so many times before, and despite the circumstances there was something really nice about it.

There was movement from the side, and before Adora could turn her attention away from Catra to see what it was, someone grabbed her arm. A moment later Catra wasn’t in front of her. Instead she was on the other side of the rock slide, the opening to the cave on one side, another tunnel that lead deeper into the labyrinth on the other, and Glimmer standing next to her.

Adora blinked a bit, her eyes adjusting for a moment with the added light of the cave opening, before looking back at Glimmer and giving her a small smile “Thanks-”

“No problem, sorry it took so long- I started here as soon as Bow told me, but I didn’t want to waste to much energy on long jumps just in case,” Glimmer replied, smiling a bit as well.

“We have to go back though-” Adora said, moving to take Glimmer’s hand again “You have to teleport Catra out to-”

“I do?” Glimmer asked, making a bit of a face “I mean, I know we can’t just leave her in there- but we should probably have a plan first. She was sort of in the middle of attacking you.” 

“We were sparring, and I started it,” Adora replied, shaking her head “And I promised you’d get her out too. Trust me, it’ll be fine.”

Glimmer looked at her, hesitating for just a second, before nodding. A second later they were on the other side of the wall again.

“Oh, you’re back,” Catra’s normal sarcastic tone was completely restored now, raising an eyebrow as she looked over at the two “I was starting to worry you were going to just abandon me here, Princess.”

“I told you, I keep my word,” Adora replied evenly, before reaching forward to offer Catra her hand “Come on.”

There was a pause, and she saw the hesitation flick across Catra’s face. Then she reached forward, taking Adora’s hand, and after a quick nod, Glimmer had them standing on the other side of the wall again.

“Okay, no more teleporting for a little while,” Glimmer said, taking a deep breath as she stepped away from Adora, Catra dropping her hand at the exact same time.

Catra immediately moved away from both of them, eyes flicking between them as if expecting some sort of surprise attack. When it didn’t come she didn’t relax, but she also nodded a bit to Glimmer, muttering a barely audible “Thanks,” before turning to head back down the tunnel she had come from earlier.

“Catra,” Adora called, and the other girl paused, looking back at her “I meant it. I will ask if you want me to, all you have to do is say the word.”

For a moment there was no response, and with it Adora felt a slight hope. Her eyes meet Catra’s and silently she prayed for the response she wanted. Say yes. Just say it. Say you’ll come with me.

“See you around Princess.”

And then Catra turned again, disappearing back down the dark hallway as quickly as she had appeared before.

“What was that about?” Glimmer asked, looking over at Adora, who just shook her head a bit.

“Nothing. I’ll tell you later,” Adora said, still slightly distracted as she did so. Then she shook her head again, trying to clear away the thoughts and disappointment as she looked back to give Glimmer a smile “Come on, let’s get out of here.”


End file.
